Tell me about your 1st Night Dive

[Divingnthedark]

scott11

He told me that your whole life is in the beam of your dive light and you never know what could be lurking outside of that beam of light. Well, my experienced buddy is taking pictures of a large cuttle fish that is mesmerized by his light and one huge sea snake at least 4 feet long is all over his torso checking him out. I saw no need to alarm him, after all, it was not in his beam of light! I kept my distance and sat back laughing to myself because he doesn’t even know what is going on when suddenly he shifts to the side and crushed the snake up against a rock. The snake was quite stunned and fled the area very quickly confirming they are not aggressive and also not very defensive.

"I saw no need to alarm him, after all, it was not in his beam of light!" LOL
If I had been your dive buddy my wetsuit would have needed some serious cleaning after the snake got crushed up against the rock and took off!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[del_mo]

My first night dive was for AOW. We entered the water from the boat....met up with the instructor, and dove the 60' to the bottom. There was a group of us (3 sets of buddies) and we waited for the instructor to show up. After about five minutes he never showed up. So, remembering the bearings given during the dive briefing, my wife and I swam the course, with others in tow, and found the "trench" in a couple of minutes. The instructor never found the trench. We saw what we believed to be a reef shark swim by, and in the trench a bunch of bugs and parrot fish. Also got an extreme case of "lovenightdiveitis".

 

[mccabejc]

Dropped down into 30ft. of water. Off in the distance was a group of maybe 25 divers kneeling on the bottom, the beams from their dive lights pointing to the surface. Like some sort of strange ritual around a campfire. We started swimming towards the lights, and I looked to my right. Gliding gracefully along next to me, about 10 feet away, was a huge manta ray with a 12ft wingspan. He was also heading for the ring of lights, almost like Elvis running down the aisles towards the stage. As the manta and I reached the center of the ring of lights, the manta ray did a graceful loop above the divers, bathed in the beams of light. I grabbed a rock and hung on the bottom, and looked up. The manta was slowly heading right for my face, his huge mouth gaping open as he sucked in plankton. I had to duck as he swooped over me.

My first night dive. Pretty cool.

 

[twinpop]

My first night dive......awesome!!!! We where in the kelp at Catalina and it was the first day/night of bug season. I was too caught up in the beauty of it all to look for any lobsters. Seeing the kelp silhouetted by everyones light cannons was spectacular, I got seperated from my buddy during the dive and i never got alarmed once, being a new diver I was suprised by my calmness at being alone, mainly because I would wait a minute or two and I would catch sight of his strobe or his light. It was just really peaceful, we did two or three dives that night and I never once really looked for any lobsters, just took in the scenery. Oh yea, and when I was just about to get on the boat a pod of dolphins swam no more than 20' behind me - very cool.

Kevin

 

[mello-yellow]

Boring. It was in a very familiar location, so I never felt in danger of getting lost, yet I could see nothing but my gauges and my buddies' lights. Not at all scary, just boring.

Afterward I was getting eaten alive by mosquitos when changing.

 

[undrwater]

Akajima, Okinawa, Japan

This was my 10th or so dive. I had actually gotten certified to dive on this trip.

They gave us Maglite looking flashlights on the dock.

The boatride felt like taking a rollercoaster where you're inching up to the top, and you know the drop is coming...

Geared up in the dark, listened to the DM doing the pre-dive (I understood about 1/3rd of his Japanese), flipped on the light, sat on the edge of the boat with my heart in my throat, did a backroll into the inky water, descended and was shocked at how much I could actually see! The DM knew where to find all the critters and showed us a great time.

Since that time, night dives are my favorite (especially since you don't have to wake up early to do them ).

 

[skybird]

I am SO jealous of those of you whose first night dives were in really neat places. My first ( and so far only) night dive was a couple of weeks ago in the quarry ( which is the only place I have had the priviledge of diving so far). I expected to be terrified, but was amazed that It was the most relaxed dive I have ever been on. I used much less air. Of course I knew every inch of the area I was diving. The large catfish were out feeding ( okay large is a relative term) and I was able to sneak up on the unsuspecting sleeping bream. All in all, it was the most amazing experience and I am really looking forward to as many night dives as I can get....especially when I get to go to the gulf.

 

[jeckyll]

Good thread.

I was actually searching on night dives and found it. I'm debating when to do my first one, as it seems easier to find the giant octopuss out in the open at night
I'll probably wait a bit more to get comfortable before heading out at night. Sounds very cool though (and yes, it still sounds a touch scary )

 

[Green Hand]

I was pretty apprehensive about my first night dive - I've got a pretty vivid imagination and the ocean was looking like a pretty big, dark place.

We did a beach entry and headed off. The objective of the dive was to get used to being under water at night so it wasn't planned to be particularly spectacular with night life.

To this day I can still remember looking behind me every time something brushed my leg.

There are some movies I should never have watched and wish I could erase them from my memory.

 

[cmufieldhockey8]

My first dusk/night dive was my first dive since certification and first open water dive in 6 months. But it also began at dusk and I was buddied with my instructor whom I trust very much. I did another night dive the next night with a group.

That dive was much less comfortable because of my fear of losing my buddy by confusing him with the other people. That we descended in the dark and I couldn't see much. I'm very glad the dusk/night dive came first because it got me comfortable with the darkness and we descended while we could still see.